Wolfpack takes Temple lightly in loss

Published: Friday, March 22, 2013 at 08:44 PM.

The score was 47-30 with less than 16 minutes to play before the Wolfpack racked up nine consecutive points.

Wood, a swingman, notched his first points on a pair of free throws with 5:41 to play, closing the gap to 59-49. His first field goal was a 3-pointer with 3:30 left, making it 62-57.

Temple
missed four consecutive free throws coming down the stretch, and when Wood hit another 3 it was 63-60 with more than three minutes left.

Temple
was without a field goal for the last 4:39, but the verdict was settled on two Wyatt foul shots with 2.2 seconds showing. Wyatt, a senior, reached the 30-point plateau for the sixth time this season.

The Owls were gracious by missing 11 second-half free throws, but they canned six of their last seven attempts.

“I thought our first half was about as good as we could play,”
Temple
coach Fran Dunphy said. “… We had a nice lead, but
N.C.
State
is too powerful a team to have it be easy for us down the stretch.”

Temple
shot 48 percent from the field for its best rate in nearly a month.

DAYTON, Ohio – The preferred way for North CarolinaState to reflect on Friday’s NCAA tournament game would have been to break down the late-game comeback.

But that went for naught because too much damage had been done by Temple — if not self-inflicted in several ways — in Friday afternoon’s 76-72 NCAA tournament loss at University of Dayton Arena.

“It’s frustrating to have a start like that,” N.C.State coach Mark Gottfried said. “We just didn’t guard them for 40 minutes. It’s real simple. We guarded them for 20. Didn’t guard them for the first 20. Tough way to go out.”

Some of the numbers are mind-boggling considering eighth-seeded N.C.State (24-11) shot 70.4 percent (19 of 27) from the field in the second half, when it limited its turnovers to three.

Guard Khalif Wyatt, despite coping with a re-aggravated thumb injury in the waning minutes, scored 31 points for ninth-seeded Temple (24-9), which has won eight of its last nine games going into Sunday’s game against top-seeded Indiana. The Hoosiers defeated James Madison 83-62 in the second game.

Temple teammate Jake O’Brien, a transfer from BostonUniversity, scored 13 of his 18 points in the first half.

Even though N.C.State trailed by 18 points early in the second half, it rallied in its tournament opener. Brown missed a potential tying 3 with 1:31 to play. The Wolfpack had seven more possessions, but never with a chance to pull even.

Still, it was the beginning that was the sticking point.

“We didn’t play well at the start and it definitely showed,” Wood said.

After Temple’s 12-4 lead that resulted in an N.C.State time-out, the Wolfpack caught up before the Owls strung together nine points in a row for a 24-15 edge.

“We didn’t come out and match the intensity,” Leslie said.

The halftime count showed Temple with a 38-24 lead, shooting 53.3 percent from the field and feasting at times on 10 N.C.State turnovers.

“It was just us, careless,” Brown said.

The score was 47-30 with less than 16 minutes to play before the Wolfpack racked up nine consecutive points.

Wood, a swingman, notched his first points on a pair of free throws with 5:41 to play, closing the gap to 59-49. His first field goal was a 3-pointer with 3:30 left, making it 62-57.

Temple missed four consecutive free throws coming down the stretch, and when Wood hit another 3 it was 63-60 with more than three minutes left.

Temple was without a field goal for the last 4:39, but the verdict was settled on two Wyatt foul shots with 2.2 seconds showing. Wyatt, a senior, reached the 30-point plateau for the sixth time this season.

The Owls were gracious by missing 11 second-half free throws, but they canned six of their last seven attempts.

“I thought our first half was about as good as we could play,” Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. “… We had a nice lead, but N.C.State is too powerful a team to have it be easy for us down the stretch.”

Temple shot 48 percent from the field for its best rate in nearly a month.

“I don’t think we did a good job contesting shots,” Brown said. “I knew they had shooters, but I didn’t think they would shoot like that.”